Instagram Crashes When Opened – A Quick Guide

If you like checking out your social media apps like Instagram and Facebook for the latest photos and posts, you’ll find that occasional glitches on your favorite apps can be very frustrating. For frequent users of the Instagram photo-sharing app, persistent Instagram crashes especially after opening the app can make you feel like throwing your phone over the edge of a cliff.

When Instagram crashes as soon as you open it, the app leaves you unable to publish anything on your profile and also view what your followers have been posting. The problem is made worse by the fact that you can’t even determine what’s causing the app to crash since it doesn’t open in the first place. In this case, you don’t know whether it is a problem with the app itself, your phone, or the Internet.

The good news is, problems with apps crashing are easy to fix as we shall demonstrate with some solutions in this post. However, there is bad news for users who are either using unofficial Instagram apps on their phones or running modified/custom firmware on their phones. In the latter case, there isn’t much to do since the problem is most likely with the modified software.

If you’re using the official Instagram app and official firmware on your phone and Instagram keeps stopping or crashing whenever you open the app, here are few recommended suggestions to help resolve the issue.

Step 1: Restart your device.

The most common tech advice issued when one faced with a misbehaving device is to turn it off and on again. As trivial as this piece of advice sounds, restarting your device is a simple step that could solve a lot of issues.

Step 2: Check whether the Problem Affects other users.

If restarting the device doesn’t work, check whether other users are experiencing frequent Instagram crashes too. Ask your friends if they can access and use Instagram without the app crashing every time they open it. If this is the case, then the problem is on your end rather than the Instagram servers.

Step 3: Try updating your Instagram App and Phone Firmware.

After confirming that other users aren’t experiencing frequent Instagram crashes, then it is either your Instagram app is broken, or your device has some bugs. This especially happens if you’re running outdated firmware on your phone, or you have recently updated the phone software. In this case, try updating both your Instagram app and your phone software to ensure both are up to date.

Step 4: Clear Instagram Cache and Data (Android Only).

You can reset your Instagram app to seem like a fresh install by clearing the app’s cache and data. This is often a necessary step especially if apps start misbehaving after a software/app update. Unfortunately, this solution only works for Android users, iPhone users should proceed to the next step.

On Android, navigate to Settings > Apps

Find and tap on Instagram on the list of apps that appears.

Tap the Force Close button

Tap on Storage

Tap on Clear Data (this clears both cache and app data so no need to tap Clear Cache)

Click OK on the prompt that appears with a warning that all the app’s data will be deleted.

Step 5: Uninstall and reinstall the Instagram App.

If clearing the application data did not work for you in Step 4 above, you can try uninstalling and reinstalling the app. This process works for both Android and iOS.

On Android

Go to Settings > Apps

Find and tap on Instagram on the list of apps that appears.

Click OK on the prompt that appears asking if you really want to uninstall the app.

Go to the Google Play Store app and re-install and a fresh copy of Instagram.

In iOS (iPhone and iPad)

Navigate to Settings> General> iPhone Storage (In the iPad, this last option will be labeled as iPad Storage).

Scroll towards the bottom of the screen where you’ll see all your apps listed in order of the amount of space they use up. Select the Instagram app.

Tap DeleteApp and click OK to confirm. The app, along with its data will be deleted.

Next, proceed to the App Store and re-install a fresh copy of Instagram.

Step 6: Factory Reset Your Phone.

If you have tried all the above steps and Instagram keep crashing or stopping after you open it, then the final option is to reset your phone to default settings. This means you will lose all your apps and data such as music, photos, and videos and your phone will be restored to the same as the day you bought it. In this case, it is important to back up your data.

On iOS (iPhone and iPad)

Back up your device on iCloud by navigating to Settings> iCloud> Backup and ensure that the backup feature has been enabled. Check when the last backup was done under the Backup Now button and if the date and time displayed aren’t recent, click on Backup Now to create a backup.

After backing up, reset your iPhone or iPad by going to Settings > General > Reset

Tap on the Erase All Content & Settings button. You’ll be prompted to type in a passcode if you had set one.

A red warning box will appear asking if you want to Erase iPhone.

Tap on this warning and the enter your APPLE ID password.

The iPhone or iPad will be wiped off everything in storage and reset to its initial factory settings. Afterward, set up your iPhone afresh and trying reinstalling Instagram and opening to see if it still crashes.

Enable all the options listed under the Google Account and ensure that all the data has been synced and the syncing completed.

Navigate again to Settings> Backup & Reset and tap on FactoryReset.

Enter your device PIN if you had set one and confirm that you would like to reset your phone. The phone will reboot and you’ll have to set it up afresh by adding your Google account.

Next, navigate to the Google Play Store and download a fresh copy of Instagram.

Conclusion:

If none of the steps above fix your Instagram crashing issue after opening the app, the only thing you have to do is wait until Instagram fixes the bug on their end and issues a new update. To report bugs, crashes, and other issues, follow the instructions listed on the Instagram Help Center.

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